Shedding Roles, Arriving at Existence - mukcyen 26A/W ‘formed’
mukcyen│© Changsu
An identity shaped through the screen, without physical substance. Titles that accumulate over time. From birthplace to gender, we are gradually constructed based on existing external frameworks, often regardless of our own intentions. Reducing what should be infinitely diverse into simplified symbols makes it easier to categorize and understand. But when those externally constructed “roles” begin to fall away, what remains of the self?
On March 21, on mukcyen’s grand finale at Rakuten Fashion Week Tokyo, Yokogao went beyond the polished surface of the runway. We stepped into the backstage just before the heat took shape, as well as the underlying thinking of designer Yuka Kimura.
Yuka Kimura - Between Cultures
The brand name mukcyen is derived from the Chinese pronunciation of the designer’s surname, “mùcūn” (木村). Born in Japan in 1998 and raised in China, Kimura has always lived between cultures.
Beyond her role as a designer, she also exists as an influencer with a following of over 200k. This season began with a deeply personal question that emerged from living within these layered “roles” and as an “icon” or IP.
“I started questioning what remains of me once all social roles are stripped away. There was a sense of confusion within myself, which led me to Kafka’s Metamorphosis and eventually to Marie Antoinette.”
Kafka’s Mirror of Absurdity
Kimura’s question resonates with Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis (1915). Gregor Samsa, a man who wakes up one morning transformed into a giant insect, loses his place in society the moment he can no longer fulfill his roles as a “son” or “breadwinner.” He is reduced to an object.
Kimura suggests that we, too, may exist within a similar absurdity, where our existence is validated only through the roles we perform. As Franz Kafka once said: “History is often nothing but a form of bureaucratic authorship.”
As this line suggests, we are frequently “defined” by systems. Yet her collection formed seeks to affirm something beyond that gaze: a state where, after all roles have fallen away, what remains is pure desire and dignity.
Marie Antoinette and the Act of Self-Creation
Another key axis this season is Marie Antoinette. In 1770, she was assigned the role of a political instrument, in a marriage independent of her own will. Kimura is not drawn to the opulent Rococo portraits, but to Antoinette at the edge of death, execution awaits, stripped of power, family, and the exaggerated garments that once defined her.
Echoing Jean-Paul Sartre’s idea that “existence precedes essence,” Antoinette sheds the imposed identity of “queen.” In accepting death, she establishes herself as a woman independent of all roles.
What mukcyen portrays is not tragedy, but a dramatic act of self-creation that begins from nothing.
Clothing as Ritual - Toward Sacred Value
The 2026–27 Autumn/Winter collection is grounded in this interplay of existence and absurdity. The runway transforms into a ritual, where biographies like those of Kafka or Marie Antoinette are retranslated into body, material, and fabric.
The garments, developed through an almost archaeological exploration of medieval imagery, carry something both ancient and distinctly contemporary. Detached from everyday function, they are presented as objects worthy of contemplation.
“Humans are treated like objects by society and circumstance, losing their place. That biography transforms again into body, material, fabric, a ritual. The works are detached, isolated, emphasized, and positioned as something to be reflected upon. Absurdity becomes the medium that makes this transmission possible. Clothing, then, is no longer something to be consumed, it emerges as something sacred. Something that asks you to stop, listen, and think.”
To stop, to listen, to think. mukcyen’s “second skin” and “formal series” go beyond functionality, embodying a composed attitude that questions the distance between self and others, and between self and reality itself.
120% purity - Resonating with Robert Wilson
In staging the show, Kimura drew strong inspiration from playwright Robert Wilson. His meticulous construction of light, background, and props, and his uncompromising perfectionism, served as a guiding principle.
“People say it’s better to balance things at 80%, but I can’t accept that. I want to live without compromise, and show that effort at 120%.”
The tension backstage, contrasted with the stillness of the runway. Within that contrast lies a clear sense of resolve, a designer questioning what it means to be human.
What we witnessed backstage was a duality: meticulously calculated detail, and the overwhelming intensity of Yuka Kimura as a living, breathing individual.
The collection moves beyond the temporary role of trend, reaching inward, posing a question to the wearer. How is our life shaped?
mukcyen’s formed offers one of the most beautiful, and most honest, answers to that question.
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mukcyen’s new collection strips away roles while exploring identity.